Burning The Days
by Rumon Gray
Summary: A series of connected vignettes, with different themes about Sans, and the happiness that he thought always eluded him. My entries, numbers 4-7, of #cheeruptheskeletonweek over on tumblr, with a bonus 8th prompt at the end. Ties into "Waking Up" near the end.
1. Family

Entry # 4 of "Cheer Up The Skeleton" week on Tumblr. The prompt was "Family."

* * *

Sunday afternoons tended to be much slower for Sans, even with Papyrus hovering around the house trying to clean.

The skeleton's eyes flickered open, his head never leaving his pillow as he groaned. He thought about pulling the covers over his head, but feeling the new fabric reminded him that, yet again, time had not been reset. He was always ready for it to come, and every morning was more of a surprise than a natural occurrence.

It smelled like socks and somber memories.

Finally accepting fate, Sans slowly began to crawl out of his messy bed. He stretched, scratched, and rotated his neck to loosen it a bit before finally standing. He barely made it into his slippers, and walked to the far end of his bedroom to where...wait. Where is it? Where was his calendar? The one that he wrote the numbers on?

In its place was one small sticky note, resting all alone on the empty space.

"'CHECK YOUR PHONE, LAZYBONES!' -THE GREAT PAPYRUS"

Sans tilted his head in confusion before turning around, grabbing his phone off the dresser. He swiped away the lock-screen, noticing that had four missed voice messages to listen to. He'd forgotten that he turned his phone silent when he slept, a habit he was used to with a brother like Papyrus. He turned the speakerphone on and dialed the number.

"Four. New messages. First new message:"

"O-oh, hi Sans, it's Alphys. Papyrus s-said you weren't feeling all that great, so I decided to call and ask if there was anything you n-needed? If not, that's okay, just wanted to make sure...y'know..."

"Alphys!" Undyne's voice bellowed, "tell Sans to cheer up or I'll turn his frowns upside down! With body slams!"

"...h-hope you heard that, heh heh. Bye Sans."

Beep.

"Next message."

"Hi Sans, it's Frisk. Just wondering, um, if you were okay? Papyrus was saying that you were sleeping in a lot, and that you only did that when you were sick, so I hope you feel better, okay? Bye."

Beep.

"I'm not sick," Sans muttered to himself, "am I really that out of it?"

"Next message."

"Oh! Hello Sans! This is your friend, Toriel. Frisk and Papyrus said you might be ailing from something, and I thought that as a friend it was my duty to help you recover! Do let me know if I can do anything to assist, even if it's just more of these corny jokes, will you not? Take care."

Beep.

"Next message."

"SANS! IT IS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"

Already Sans was beginning to smile.

"I CAME INTO YOUR ROOM TODAY TO CLEAN, EVEN THOUGH YOU WERE SLEEPING AND NOTICED YOU HAD A CALENDAR ON THE WALL WITH NUMBERS. YOU'VE BEEN COUNTING THE DAYS SINCE WE LEFT THE UNDERGROUND, RIGHT? ARE YOU STILL WAITING FOR A RESET? DIDN'T FRISK TELL YOU THEY COULDN'T DO THAT ANYMORE?"

Well, sure, they said that, but it doesn't necessarily mean...

"YOU SHOULD TRUST YOUR FRIENDS, SANS! I BELIEVE FRISK, AND I BELIEVE _IN_ THEM AS WELL, AND I KNOW YOU DO, TOO! SO, AND I AM VERY SORRY FOR THIS, I TOOK YOUR CALENDAR, AND IF YOU WANT IT BACK, THEN I WANT TO TALK. BROTHER TO BROTHER, OKAY? I WANT TO HELP YOU, AND I KNOW, I KNOW, YOU 'DON'T NEED ANY HELP,' BUT I KNOW YOU'RE LYING, BECAUSE YOU ARE A POOR LIAR! EVERYBODY NEEDS HELP SOMETIMES. IF IT HELPS, I'LL BE WAITING AT GRILLBY'S NEW PLACE, SINCE I KNOW YOU LIKE EATING THERE...FOR WHATEVER REASON. FAREWELL, BROTHER!"

"To replay, press 4. To erase, press..."

Beep. Sans hung up.

Despite the smile, there was a sense of dread hanging in the air now. Sans was used to Papyrus' lectures, but he certainly wasn't prepared for...preparing for a lecture. They were usually off-the-cuff, but the fact that Papyrus was waiting for him meant that this was something he'd been planning for awhile. And Sans could always tell when Papyrus was planning.

But Grillby's? Sure, it was nicer on the surface, since it was possible to actually...order supplies, but it was still a bit of a dive. Sans loved the atmosphere, and the food, but Papyrus didn't really care for it. Would he really be there? What, if anything, was he going to do?

Sans had no answers as he picked up his blue coat off the floor.

* * *

One shortcut later, and Sans found himself at the front door of Grillby's new establishment. Nestled away in a district known for its many taverns, it was perhaps the only place that served no alcohol at all, and it was actually a fairly popular destination. Apparently, humans had cravings for excellently greasy food just like he did.

He pushed the door open as it caught on the signaling bell above. Strangely, the entire place was empty, although it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon, on Sunday no less. Sans looked at the familiar atmosphere, musing again on just how many fire extinguishers there were. Each wall had one placed, at most, ten feet away from the next one. Each support column had one attached to each side. All in all, there were about forty in total just in the seating areas alone.

Being a fire elemental certainly brought some...challenges to a city's fire code.

At the bar, sat a rather lanky skeleton, resting his head on his hand. Sans took a deep breath before walking forward and sitting down next to his brother, who finally stopped looking so bored.

"SANS."

"'sup, bro?"

"WELL, I'M GLAD YOU'RE HERE. I APOLOGIZE FOR TAKING YOUR STUFF, BUT I FIGURED..."

"it's okay. have i...been worrying everybody?"

"YEAH. YOU'VE SEEMED A BIT SAD LATELY. EVEN MORE THAN USUAL, I SUPPOSE."

"oh."

Papyrus reached behind him to the adjacent stool, picking up a delicately wrapped present and handed it over.

"I GOT YOU SOMETHING, TO HELP."

"pap...you didn't have to..."

"I KNOW I DIDN'T HAVE TO. I WANTED TO! ...SO I HAD TO!"

Sans tore through the wrapping quickly enough, holding his prize out in front of him with a puzzled look.

"it's...my calendar?"

"NOPE! TRY AGAIN!"

"bro...this is my calendar. it's the exact same one i had in my room last night."

"NOPE! OPEN IT!" Papyrus snickered.

Sans flipped through the months and confirmed Papyrus' statements. It _wasn't_ his calendar, because there was nothing written. No numbers were marked down for any of the days at all.

"Oh..." he said, sounding a bit deflated.

"SANS. FLIP TO TODAY'S DATE."

He did so, and noticed that in the box, one single number was written down, in much cleaner handwriting.

"WHAT DOES IT SAY?"

"heh, it says..."

Papyrus struggled to hide his glee.

"three-hundred, sixty five...?"

" **SURPRISE!"**

From behind the bar, Toriel, Frisk, Undyne, Alphys, Asgore, and even Mettaton leaped up, some of them blowing noisemakers, others throwing confetti. All of it directed toward Sans. All of it.

"you guys...what's all this for?"

"IT'S BEEN EXACTLY ONE YEAR SINCE WE LEFT THE UNDERGROUND! YOU'VE BEEN COUNTING THE DAYS, BUT NOT FOR THE RIGHT REASONS! NYEH-HEH-HEH!"

"i...don't know what to say!"

Asgore gave a low guffaw. "You don't have to say anything. Your smile is speaking volumes!"

"Yeah!" Undyne chimed in, "You might even be smiling wider than I am! And I'm the best smiler here!"

"I DON'T THINK SO! I'M CLEARLY THE BEST!"

"No way, bone-head!"

"Actually," Toriel interrupted, placing her hand on Frisk's head. "I believe you are both in the wrong."

Frisk beamed a smile right into the skeleton's heart, as they handed a folded piece of cardboard to Sans.

"what's this, kiddo?"

"Oh, Frisk had an art assignment at school today. They had to make pictures of their family. I believe you may find this pleasing!"

He unfolded the paper, and all the usual suspects were there. All the drawings were about the best one could expect of a child, each one sectioned off from each other around the outside edge, touching the inside picture, which was of Frisk, appropriately.

Mom – Toriel

Dad – Asgore

Cool Aunt – Undyne

Best Aunt – Alphys

Cool and Best Uncle – Mettaton

Coolest Bro – Papyrus

Best Bro – Sans

"heh heh...you think i'm the best brother?"

Frisk nodded happily.

"BUT DON'T FORGET! I AM THE COOLEST!"

"yeah, pap. you are."

The door leading to the kitchen swung open, and the mysteriously absent Grillby finally arrived, pushing a large cart with an even larger cake on top. There were so many candles that everybody had no reason to think there _weren't_ at least three-hundred sixty five of them.

Fire elementals. Go figure.

Everybody inhaled at the same time, and they all began to blow out the candles from their respective positions around the cake. Frisk's section needed a bit of, help, which of course The Great Papyrus was happy to assist. When all of them were nothing more than smoking wicks, everybody applauded.

"All right, Beauties and Gentle-beauties! This fabulous party's just getting started!"

Seemed like Mettaton was ready for quite the night.

Sans slid off the stool, and turned away. "i'll be right back."

"SANS! YOU'RE NOT LEAVING, ARE YOU?"

"nah, i just wanna get some fresh air for a bit. i'll be back in a bit. i promise."

Those two words caused both Papyrus and Toriel to light up. Sans hated making promises, but he'd always kept them. No matter what.

The skeleton exited Grillby's and stepped to the side of the door, leaning up against the wall. He still had Frisk's assignment in his hand, and looked at it again, feeling a strange rush above his nose and behind his eyes. Had it really been a year? A whole year on the surface?

Something dripped onto the cardboard as Sans sniffled a bit.

The bell jingled again, the door opening up for Papyrus, who turned to his brother with a confused face.

"SANS...ARE YOU...SAD?"

"i..."

More drips. He was starting to leak.

"i was. but...now i'm..."

Papyrus didn't need to hear any more. He knelt down and embraced his brother just like Sans had always done when Papyrus was a child. Instead of just...standing there, Sans decided to hug back this time, burying his face in Papyrus' cape. He justified it as using it to wipe the tears off, but both of them knew. This was something he'd wanted to do. Something he'd _always_ wanted to do.

"you...really are the coolest, pap."

"NOPE! NOT TODAY! TODAY THAT'S YOU! ...EVEN IF FRISK THINKS OTHERWISE."

"heh...fair enough. thanks."

The sniffles came to a stop, slowly. Sans released his brother, but Papyrus scooped up his sibling and carried him in one arm, something he hadn't really done since lugging him around the Underground to get him to work.

"SHALL WE RETURN TO THE PARTY?"

Sans' face returned to its cheshire-like grin. "yeah."

It smelled like smiles and incredible siblings.


	2. Music

Entry # 5 of "Cheer Up The Skeleton" week on Tumblr. The prompt was "Music." Inspired by the song "The Dumbing Down of Love" by Frou Frou / Imogen Heap.

* * *

Why wasn't it working?

Sans workshop, or rather, the large shed in the backyard, was cramped enough as it was without all the parts strewn about. Stripped wires, fuses, conductors, resistors, all of them scattered about the floor like puzzle pieces that forever awaited completion. Beyond them, a large cylindrical machine stood like a monolith over the skeleton.

A monument to his failure.

Sans grabbed the blueprints again, struggling once more to transcribe the symbols that their creator preferred to use. "For security," he'd always said, "so that my secrets can _stay_ secrets."

But Sans always knew what the symbols stood for, in fact, it was rather easy for anybody to decipher them if they knew the code. Their creator always trusted in a person's desire to not put in more effort than they believed to be required. Every extra step was one more barrier to completion. Sans hated it most of all.

On top of that, it smelled like bones and scorched electronics.

He pored over the blueprints again, his hands beginning to tremble. None of it made sense. He had everything he needed, he put everything where it belonged, but there was something missing. Something that wasn't written down, something that may have very well been an accident in the first place, so it wasn't documented. But everything was _here,_ and it all fit together! It even received power and never once lost efficiency!

Sans' shaking hand picked up a heavy brick, a leftover PC power supply.

"it doesn't make any _damn_ sense!"

The object soared through the air, but his target, the wall, turned out to be just too short. The window, on the other hand, was perfect. The sound of shattering glass jarred Sans to a newfound state of awareness. He was...angry? He hadn't felt so angry since...

Wait. If he heard that, that meant that someone _else_...

"Three...two...one..."

The shed door, abnormally unlocked, flung open, and Papyrus already had his hand on his hips.

"SANS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! BE CAREFUL!"

"sorry! ...sorry, pap, i'll fix the window when i can."

"THAT'S FINE, BUT...WHY ARE YOU SO ANGRY? AND WHY HAVE YOU BEEN IN HERE SINCE THIS MORNING?"

"this morning? pap, it's only..."

Sans pulled out his phone.

"...it's six forty five? _pm?_ "

"YOU'VE BEEN IN HERE ALL DAY. WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON, ANYWAY?"

"nothing. don't worry about it."

"SO WHAT'S THAT MACHINE? WHAT DOES IT DO?"

"nothing. no really, it doesn't do anything, no matter what i try. it's missing something and i can't figure out what."

"SO...JUST STOP?"

"papyrus, i'm not going to stop, i have to finish this. if i do, i can-"

"I DIDN'T MEAN FOR GOOD, NUMBSKULL. JUST TAKE A BREAK. GO FOR A WALK, THAT ALWAYS HELPS ME WHEN I CAN'T FIGURE OUT A PUZZLE."

He didn't know if it was guilt for breaking the window or maybe admitting that Papyrus was right, but Sans stood up and grabbed his jacket.

"...might work. thanks bro."

"OF COURSE. BUT YOU SHOULD REALLY PICK UP THE GLASS IN THE YARD FIRST."

"heh, sure thing."

* * *

Even with his frustration clouding his mind, Sans still enjoyed the sunsets. Nobody could really blame him though, he'd only experienced exactly three hundred and sixty seven of them, sixty eight if the day the barrier shattered counts.

His hands had finally stopped shaking, but they were still making tiny fists, shoved forcibly into his pockets as he walked. His mind was a jumbled mess, much like the wires of the machine he was trying to fix. Problems upon problems upon problems, and it felt like somebody was switching variables or moving decimal points without his permission.

On the right, he saw he was about to pass by Alphys and Undyne's house, and the thought crossed his mind for just a second. Maybe he could ask for help? Alphys was always good at reverse-engineering, even better than Sans. She might not be able to create things on her own as well, but if something needed to be fixed, she was the right person...or monster...for the job.

He stopped for a second and stared at the house, a single light on in the front, which he knew to be the living room. The window was open, probably to cool the house down, and the curtains were billowing inside. That's when he heard it.

A starting chord chiming from a piano.

It wasn't exactly a big secret that Undyne enjoyed playing the piano, but she didn't really play to audiences. Outside of helping Shyren with lessons, the warrior always preferred to be alone with the music she played, which was a shame, since she was really good.

He didn't know why, but he felt himself gravitate toward the side of the house. He walked up against the wall next to the window, raising his hands behind his head and leaning back.

The chords came one after the other, none of them out of place. It became clear that Undyne was, in fact, playing, and not Alphys messing around with the keys in a nervous tic. No, this was professional quality. Not a single note out of place, no wasted flats or sharps. It wasn't clear what song Undyne was playing at the moment, but then something else began to really surprise Sans.

She began to sing along.

This was certainly a side to Undyne that _nobody_ had seen. The normally abrasive, over-enthusiastic heroine was so controlled here. True discipline, exercised in just about any form, could conquer even the bleakest of battlefields, including those of the heart. It was gentle, like it was another instrument being controlled by a true master. Just like her playing, there was nothing jarring, no broken notes, no unexpected rasps or hiccups. It was passion, absolutely channeled into pure emotional bliss.

And just like that, the knots in Sans' mind began to unravel. Gone were the angered fits of misaligned soldering accidents. No wiring mishaps, no power output losses. No parts getting lost under tables, no scratched fingers from the tiny pieces, no exhaustion from trying to install something that just barely fit. It all washed away in waves of song, drifting out to sea to be claimed by the Sirens.

In the empty space, Sans' mind was able to think clearly again. And it hit him. He knew what was missing.

"that's it!"

The piano stopped. Sans grimaced and prepared for the worst as the front door immediately slammed open.

"Who's there?! I swear to god I'll..."

Undyne looked at the flinching skeleton, who somehow was still smiling.

"Sans?! What the hell are you _doing_ here?!"

Sans looked at Undyne's face, which was blushing a very bright shade of red.

"i...uh...sorry, i'll head home now."

"Wait!"

Sans stopped dead in his tracks.

Undyne gave a heavy sigh. "...Were you listening? To me play?"

"yeah. and sing. it was...really good."

"No it wasn't! Okay?! It's not good! And if you tell anybody-!"

"undyne, chill. it was really really good. i'm serious, i didn't know you could sing, and your voice is great."

"S-stop!"

"sorry. guess...you don't like an audience, huh?"

Sans put his hands back into his pockets and started to walk away.

"Why...did you stay to listen?" Undyne asked, looking to the side.

"i was...mad about something. papyrus suggested i take a walk, and before i knew it, i was just...here. listening.

"You? Mad? Hah! I bet Pap was beside himself!" Undyne chuckled.

"yeah, well, i kinda broke a window out of frustration, so i guess i owed it to him i guess."

"Oh man, he hates broken glass!"

"ha ha, yep."

They stood in silence for a moment, both of them just as embarrassed as the other.

"So...you said "That's it!" Undyne mocked his voice, "Did...you figure out what was wrong?"

"i think so, yeah. your 'terrible' playing," Sans said, using air quotes, "kinda helped me calm down and think a little bit better."

Undyne squinted her good eye for a second, then stormed back into the house, slamming the door, of course.

Sans sighed, and gave a light chuckle before turning back toward home. The sound of the door flying open again stopped him as he spun on his heel.

Undyne bounded down the steps and handed Sans a small device. A thumb-drive.

"Here."

"what's this?"

"It's...a copy of the song I was playing. It helps me calm down when I'm really mad. Alphys gave it to me, it's really good."

"is it better than you singing?"

"Pssssh! No way! And if you tell anyone, _especially_ Mettaton, I'll permanently clamp your jawbone shut!"

"alright, alright, noted."

Sans looked down at the tiny device resting in his bony hands before clasping it tightly.

"...thanks."

Undyne's eye widened. Sans wasn't making fun of her? He wasn't deflecting with a joke? Just...thanks?

"...No problem. If..."

Sans tilted his head.

"If you want to listen to me sing again, you have to _tell_ me, alright?"

The door slammed shut again, along with the living room window. Sans gave another laugh and headed for home.

It smelled like sunsets and smiles.


	3. Fixed

Entry # 6 for "Cheer Up The Skeleton" week over on Tumblr. The prompt was "The Machine Is Fixed."

* * *

Finally.

Sans reached up and slid his headphones off of his skull, hanging them around his neck as he stared at his work. Everything finally fit into place. Every part, every single missing piece was now accounted for. For years, the device sat behind a curtain. A shroud of uncertainty.

He grabbed a clipboard off a nearby workbench and immediately began to run his diagnostics. It was routine, and he still expected the typical results, but there was something more now. Determination.

"power output...nominal. no sudden losses. Structural integrity holding, no dangers there."

He grabbed a pen and stretched it out slowly toward the machine. Static sparked off the metal end, and stopped. He reached further, allowing his hand to touch it before going back to the list.

"energy field is safe and stable. calculations are holding steady too, no sudden crashes. i think..."

He did it.

It smelled like progress and possibilities.

From the outside, it appeared to be simple. A large glass tube, wherein sat a single chair with several pieces of monitoring equipment attached. A large dome structure stuck out from the top of the chair's back, presumably for the head.

He checked again. And again. And double-checked that, and triple-checked even that. He had to be absolutely sure. He had to eliminate any false positives, had to delete the possibility of dead ends or bad leads. He had to be sure there was no false hope. After about an hour of checks, the answer came to him. It was done.

The Artificial Save/Load Point was completed.

His mind raced with the possibilities. With this machine, it was possible to send his present consciousness back into his own timeline, giving his past self the knowledge they would need to change things. Everything.

He thought about going back to the Underground, back when he first met Frisk. The _first_ time. When he barely ever talked to them, when Frisk was just a frightened child in a world full of monsters. A child that just needed a friend, and Sans refused, for the most part. He kept watch, but never really gave Frisk the help they really needed. They needed somebody to talk to. They needed somebody to assure them that everything was going to be okay. They needed guidance. Sans could give them that guidance, both to avoid the countless resets, the constant "deaths" of his brother, and to finally just give himself peace of mind.

His eyes panned over to the school assignment Frisk had given him days before, which he hung on the wall. He wanted to really be the "best brother" he could be.

But that wasn't enough. He thought back even farther. Back to his work at The Core, in the Research Department, with his mentor. He could stop the accident from ever happening. He could work together with his mentor in order to find some way to break the barrier _without_ the use of human souls! To free monsters by their _own_ power, not that stolen by sacrificing lives! Lives! He could save i _lives!_ /i

He wanted to hear those words again. The words his mentor spoke the morning before the experiment. He could still hear them clearly in his mind, perhaps in his soul.

" **Every Action Is A Ripple In A Pond. That Ripple Has The Power To Change Everything. It Can Help The Fish In The Pond, Or It Can Scare Them Away. It Can Cause The Pond To Become Better Than It Ever Was, Or It Could Become A Barren Ruin, All Because We Slapped Our Hands On The Surface. We Have To Be Careful, Sans."**

...Careful?

Change...everything?

 _Every_ thing?

He felt a tightness in his chest, one that felt like a sudden anxiety attack. The weight of what he'd heard that day had finally caught up with him, and it only took years to sink in. It was crushing. It was crushing to finally understand what the doctor was saying, that despite his best intentions, things could spiral out of control.

But...wasn't it his duty to try?

He powered down the machine and sighed. There were too many thoughts at war in his mind, now. He had to wait, and find the answers once the dust settled.

He decided to go to Grillby's.

* * *

The place was almost empty.

Again, a strange sight, especially when the evening was getting on. No throngs of hungry people getting off late work shifts to fill up with something quick. Not even many of the regulars were hanging around, and there was nobody at the bar except for Grillby. Still cleaning glasses, as always.

It smelled like kindling and kismet.

Sans took his usual seat at the bar, nodding at Grillby as the elemental already had a bottle of ketchup at the ready. He popped the top and took a sip, and slammed the bottle down happily.

"i did it, grillz. i fixed the machine."

Grillby tilted his head.

"oh, right. guess i never told you. i've been working on this machine, it broke in the accident at the core. it's a...man, how can i explain it."

He pulled out a napkin, and drew his face, twice, and drew a line between them with an arrow pointing in one direction.

"it's kinda like a time machine, but not exactly. i can't send myself back in time, but i can send my mind, my memories, back into my past self's consciousness. i can use the things i know now to fix the problems back then, to make the changes i need to! we could..."

He looked at Grillby and sighed.

"you don't believe me. yeah, i get it, it's pretty unbelievable, but it's true."

Grillby pushed up his glasses and leaned down on the counter to get on Sans' level.

" _I believe you."_

The shock almost caused Sans to fall back off of his stool. Grillby hardly _ever_ talked, and Sans had only heard it a handful of times, and they were never directed at him. It was a gentle voice. Low, deep, but one that felt like it was filled with experiences that were unheard of. It was quiet, like the gentle crackling of a small campfire.

"...you're actually talking...to me?"

" _Why?"_

"wait, that's my question. why are you suddenly..."

" _Why do you want to go back so badly?"_

"because i could fix things. because maybe i could get us out of the underground sooner, without the need for..."

He remembered that most people didn't know what The Core was truly researching and held his tongue. Or the magical skeleton equivalent of a tongue, anyway.

"i could save lives! i could...go back and help frisk when i should have! or maybe i could find a way to stop the barrier from ever being made, or..."

" _No."_

"grillz, listen, you don't understand what i'm sayin.'"

" _I understand enough."_

It was beginning to agitate Sans. All of a sudden, that nagging voice inside his own mind was here in the real world, coming from somebody he'd considered one of his closest confidants. Now he wasn't sure about anything, and it frustrated him that all his work could be considered so pointless.

"no, you don't. you don't understand what we went through. what _i_ went through. it was a nightmare. i lived every day knowing i was going to see it all happen again. and again. and again and again and again and again!"

Grillby stood back up and adjusted his collar, allowing Sans to finish his tirade before speaking again.

" _I was in the war."_

The skeleton fell silent.

" _With the humans. I was in that war, ages ago. Fire elementals can live a very long time, as long as we are properly kindled."_

It felt like a spotlight was shining on the two of them now. The remaining few patrons in the bar had become nothing more than background noise, lost amidst the shadows of the restaurant. Plates clattering, glasses clinking, soups being slurped, they were all the same sound now. A blurry picture against static.

" _I lost a lot of friends, Sans. A few of them even took arrows that should've killed me, but they died instead. I survived, at the cost of their lives."_

"i'm sorry...i didn't know."

" _And now you're telling me I could go back and fix it? That's incredible, but I still wouldn't do it."_

"why? your friends could be here today, on the surface! peace with the humans! think about it!"

" _My friends are gone, Sans. But what would happen if they survived? I know that, at least for a couple of them, it wouldn't have been a much happier ending. They hated humans. Monster souls might thrive on love and compassion, but they can still feel anger. They can still feel resentment."_

He pointed at Sans.

" _They can still feel hurt. If they survived, and lived long enough to escape the barrier, they could go on to take their revenge on humans. They could hurt, or kill people, take lives. Who knows, if I went back and stopped them from dying, I might die instead. This establishment might never even exist."_

"grillby..."

" _I don't understand the science of it, Sans, but I understand the concept, and I don't think it would be right. Everybody has scars. Every single monster and human on this planet. Those scars make us who we are, just like the good times do. They're part of our souls. We all hurt, and we all heal, and that healing helps us become better than the sum of our bad experiences. Without those scars, we wouldn't be the same people."_

Sans remained silent.

" _If you went back and stopped that accident, what would happen? You'd keep working at The Core, right? But Papyrus...Papyrus would still try to be a guard, so he'd be a sentry in Snowdin. He'd meet the human, the one that you told me you met in the forest. But you wouldn't be there, you'd be in Hotland. What would happen if you'd never met Frisk?"_

"i...guess they'd just keep going to snowdin, and.."

" _You've told me this story before. Without you being there, Papyrus would die. Without somebody telling this frightened lonely, sad child about how harmless Papyrus really is, they wouldn't hold back. Your brother would fight the child, and they would be so terrified of dying that they'd fight back. Maybe it would only take one punch. Maybe several, but they wouldn't give up until your brother was nothing but dust."_

"shut up..."

" _Do you want that? Do you want to go back to erase your scars? Because all you would accomplish is getting all new ones in their place. Would you use the machine to go back and help the human then? Stop them from killing Papyrus? Remember, your consciousness is suddenly in the past, you might not even remember Frisk, maybe not even their name. You might forget everything important to you now. Would you carry on your work? Would you kill the child out of frustration? The very same child that was responsible for shattering the barrier in the first place? Would you leave us in the underground just to save a life that was important to you? Selfish. Truly selfish."_

"selfish? i just wanted to..."

" _You wanted to erase everybody else's memories, alter them, change them, so you could feel better! You're telling me I don't understand? Do you know how many people I listen to on a daily basis? How many of them tell me they're so happy to be here? Up here on the surface? Can you guarantee that your research could break the barrier? Could you recreate our happy future now?"_

"i...i don't..."

Grillby struck the final blow.

" _Could you even carry on if your brother died?"_

Critical hit. Nines across the board. Papyrus was his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. Possibilities merged with memories, and he knew the answer. Papyrus' death always led to anger, spite, and hatred. It always caused his mind to become clouded, and the feelings never went away. It was the one scar he felt would never truly heal. It was the full stop to any sort of scientific, and even emotional progress.

"...what am i supposed to do, then?" Sans asked, looking at Grillby with desperation.

" _Just...don't. I've seen you in these last few days. You've been happy. Truly happy. That party a few days ago, our one year anniversary of escaping the underground? That was the happiest I'd ever seen you. And it wasn't because you were happy to be up here, it was because of who you were with. Toriel, Asgore, Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton."_

Sans pulled out his phone for a second, his hands trembling.

" _Papyrus...and Frisk."_

The lockscreen on his phone was a single picture. In the middle was a grinning Papyrus, with Frisk to the left, and on the right, Sans was there, giving his brother bunny ears and smiling.

Something dripped onto the touchscreen.

"...i think you made your point."

" _Have I?"_

Sans shook the feelings away for a second and gave a determined look.

"yeah. i think i know what i gotta do. thanks grillby. for everything."

The bartender pushed up his glasses again and gave an understanding nod.

" _I will always be here to listen."_

"yeah. you will."

* * *

The light in the shed flickered on, illuminating all of Sans' hard work up until this point. The machine stood in the corner, silently telling its story without the need for words. Sans still had difficulty processing just how simple the machine looked, knowing all the detailed circuitry and code that it relied on.

There were no more possibilities. No false hope, no false positives, no mistakes. Everything had finally fallen into place. There would be no more mistakes.

Sans raised one arm, and pointed it at the machine. A large animal-like skull materialized behind him, and began to channel energy in its mouth. When it had reached its limit, Sans relaxed his hold over it, and a beam of pure magic blasted the machine, hitting it dead center. All his work was going up in smoke. All his efforts were being vaporized by his own hand.

When it was over, there was nothing left but a black scorch mark against the back wall.

Sans fell to his knees, staring at the debris. This machine was his life's work, but it wasn't a symbol of hope. It was a chain, tethering him to his past. It was the one thing that constantly reopened his scars, when he should have been leaving them to heal.

It was nothing more than a tombstone.

And now it was gone.

He fell forward on his hands, not even trying to hide his tears anymore. Deep, heavy sobs erupted from the depths of his very soul, and he could feel it affect his magical essence itself. He hated admitting when he was sad. He always hid it. He was hiding it even now, but this time, not from himself.

But then...he realized that he wasn't actually sad.

For one moment, he was no longer thinking of all the things he could change. All his bad choices, his wrong turns, they were gone.

He glanced up again at Frisk's assignment on the wall, and smiled.

He was trapped in this timeline, forever. And he was free.

"...papyrus!"

Sans didn't even think before he ran across the yard, opening the sliding-glass door and entering the house, searching frantically. His search ended in the kitchen, near a bubbling pot of spaghetti noodles.

Papyrus was there.

He was there.

Right _there!_

"SANS? IS EVERYTHING ALL RIGHT?"

The chef almost fell over with the force that Sans used to hug him. Blue-jacketed arms reached behind Papyrus, squeezing so tight that he wondered if he'd ever let go. He could feel something beginning to dampen two spots on his apron.

"SANS ARE YOU...CRYING?"

No answer. The hug continued.

"SANS, BROTHER, WHAT HAPPENED?"

"we're free." Sans' muffled voice said. "we're free! really really free!"

"OF COURSE WE ARE! WE'VE BEEN FREE FOR A YEAR AND FOUR DAYS NOW!"

Sans finally released his brother and began to laugh. It wasn't a playful laugh, or a mischievous one, but a real, true, deep laugh. His brother didn't want to be left out, and gave in to how infectious it really was.

"HA...HA HA HA! HA HA...I DON'T KNOW WHY WE'RE LAUGHING!"

Sans struggled to catch his breath before looking Papyrus in his eye-sockets, beaming the widest grin he possibly could.

"i'm just...so happy you're here. that we're here. i just...kinda...wanted to say that."

Papyrus knew better, that his brother was hiding something again, but he'd learned not to probe further. Instead, he just placed his hands on Sans' shoulders.

"OF COURSE I AM. I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE."

"yeah. yeah you're right. thanks, papyrus. thank you."

It smelled like spaghetti, skeletons, and smiles.


	4. Winding Down

Entry # 7, the final "official" entry of "Cheer Up The Skeleton" week on Tumblr. The prompt was "Winding Down." After this was a bonus prompt that I felt compelled to do.

* * *

The evening dragged on into the night, and the skeleton household was still dimly lit by a lamp in the loving room. Two brothers sat on the couch, with no distractions to speak of.

"SO...IT WOULD'VE LET YOU TRAVEL BACK IN TIME?" Papyrus asked.

"yeah. well, kinda. more like, i could've gone back to a moment in my life, so i could make a different decision. to change things, but..."

"BUT YOU DIDN'T WANT TO BECOME ANOTHER...FRISK, RIGHT?"

"i guess that's one way to put it. frisk couldn't control their resets, not entirely, and i don't think it would've been fair for me to just...throw everybody back into that situation again. grillby's right, i have no idea what would happen if i started to change things. there's no perfect answers, and...if i kept on trying to fix problems that i caused, i'd just keep resetting, i suppose."

It smelled like a skeleton who finally grew up.

"IT'S STILL REALLY COOL, THAT YOU BUILT A MACHINE THAT COULD DO THAT! TIME TRAVEL IS SOMETHING THE HUMANS DREAM OF BEING ABLE TO DO!"

"yeah, well, they don't know what it's like to be stuck in that kind of loop. if they did, they'd abandon the idea entirely."

"SO JUST DON'T TELL ANYBODY. I WON'T."

"thanks, pap. i won't either. and i'm sorry."

"SORRY?"

"for being such a bonehead. it was a dumb idea."

Papyrus placed a gloved hand on Sans' shoulder. "THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH TRYING TO FIX THINGS. YOU WERE JUST TRYING TO...ERASE THE PROBLEM INSTEAD, AND YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT'S WHAT YOU WERE DOING."

"i guess."

"AND YOU DIDN'T DO IT. THAT'S THE IMPORTANT PART. YOU COULD HAVE. YOU COULD HAVE FLIPPED THE SWITCH OR WHATEVER AND JUST DONE IT, WITHOUT ANY REGARD FOR ANYBODY ELSE'S WISHES. YOU DIDN'T, BECAUSE YOU CARE ABOUT US, RIGHT?"

"of course! i care about each and every one of you! that's why i...couldn't go through with it."

"BECAUSE YOU WERE SCARED OF CHANGING THINGS TOO MUCH?"

"well, yeah, but i was also scared of...y'know, not being able to come back."

"WELL, YOU COULD HAVE JUST MADE THE SAME CHOICES AGAIN."

"not exactly. the knowledge would still be there, and it'd affect things. take that electricity maze puzzle that you had frisk run through. remember how it zapped you because you were holding the orb? so you gave it to frisk but left footprints in the maze so they solved it immediately. if you'd gone back, you would know not to get zapped, because it hurt. it's instinctive, y'know?"

"I SEE."

"so you already changed things by not even thinking about it. that was the last straw for me. i knew i couldn't just stand there and get hurt again, i'd have to move. i'd have to change, and it could be really bad even if it's minor."

"HMM...WELL THE FACT THAT YOU'RE STILL HERE, THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME!"

"thanks, papyrus."

"THAT REMINDS ME," Papyrus said, standing up and walking toward the kitchen. He returned with a letter in his hand, holding it up to look at the front. "YOU GOT THIS IN THE MAIL. SANS...WHY ARE YOU GETTING MAIL FROM NASA, OF ALL PLACES?"

"nasa?"

Sans jumped up and snatched the letter, tearing it open and perusing the document inside. Rapid eye-movement began to slow, and the smile he had began to shrink just a bit.

"hah...they said no. budget reasons. that...makes sense i suppose."

"NO? NO TO WHAT?"

"asgore had to give the government a list of monsters and their magical abilities. he told them about my ability to manipulate gravity, and about how i'm an...out of work scientist. they passed that along to nasa, and they invited me to work with them on projects."

"SO...WHY DIDN'T YOU GO?"

"i wanted to! ...but..."

Sans gave a sigh of relief.

"i told them i wouldn't go if you couldn't come with me."

"ME? SANS, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BRING ME ALONG..."

"yeah i do."

"NO, YOU DON'T! SANS, PLEASE DON'T TELL ME YOU GAVE UP YOUR DREAM FOR ME! I'LL BE FINE! I CAN...MANAGE ON MY OWN!"

"i didn't want to bring you along because i didn't think you could handle it. i wanted to bring you because...i couldn't handle it. being that far away. i couldn't do it. i...couldn't go into space without you, it'd be so lonely."

"SANS..."

"and don't be so sure i'm giving up. if they really wanted gravity magic, they'd snatch both of us up without a second thought. no...i think they realized that i was on to them."

"YOU...THINK THEY HAD BAD INTENTIONS?"

"maybe? i think they were going to drag me along, test my powers, and ditch me, to be honest. or maybe i'd become some kind of lab experiment, not that they could hold me for long or anything. that was another reason i wanted to bring you along. because you'd never stand for it. i think they knew what i was planning and just canceled their plans."

"THAT'S...KIND OF TERRIBLE!"

"yeah, well, not everybody's great like you."

"OR YOU!"

"heh, thanks."

Sans looked back at the letter and gave a low chuckle before crinkling it into a ball and tossing it toward the garbage can. His eye flickered blue and yellow after realizing he was going to miss his target, and the ball turned blue, gently landing within its target area. The magic lifted again, leaving behind a small skeleton with slightly saddened eyes.

"...YOU KNOW."

Sans looked up at his brother.

"I HAD AN IDEA, BUT...I DUNNO."

"what's that?"

"WELL...EBOTT IS A...WHAT DID THEY CALL IT, A 'COLLEGE TOWN'?"

"yeah, there's a university here, fairly prestigious if i remember right."

"SO...DO YOU THINK THEY HAVE AN ASTRONOMY DEPARTMENT?"

"i dunno, why?"

"REMEMBER THAT ONE TIME ON THE ROOF? WHEN YOU STARTED TELLING ME ABOUT STARS?"

"yeah."

"YOU WERE REALLY EXCITED. REALLY REALLY _REALLY_ EXCITED. IF I DIDN'T KNOW ANY BETTER, I'D SAY YOU WERE HAVING FUN."

"i guess i was. what, you think i could be a teacher or something?"

"YEAH! YOU COULD TEACH PEOPLE ABOUT THE STARS! SHOW THEM WHAT YOU KNOW! INSPIRE PEOPLE TO REACH FOR THEM LIKE YOU DO!"

"heh, sounds like a bit too much work..."

Papyrus put his hands on his hips and glared at his brother. "SANS..."

However, Sans' smile widened again. "...but i could always give it a shot."

"REALLY?"

"yeah, although...i'd need to become certified to teach, especially at a college, so i'd probably have to go through the hoops to get the degree and stuff. i dunno."

"WELL, JUST TAKE IT ONE STEP AT A TIME."

"i also gotta practice teaching, since, y'know, i guess i'd want to do a decent job."

"PRACTICE TEACHING? THEN I SUPPOSE THERE'S NO CHOICE!"

Papyrus puffed out his chest and held his head high.

"THEN I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL BE YOUR GREATEST STUDENT. YOU SHALL INSTRUCT ME, AND I SHALL PASS WITH THE HIGHEST OF MARKS!"

Sans chuckled again.

"then i, professor sans, no, _doctor_ sans, will elect to give you a one-time discount on your tuition of one _hundred_ percent."

"WOWIE! FREE TUITION!"

"...but we start tomorrow night. your first class is at 10 pm, are you prepared?"

"OF COURSE! I SHALL BE THERE BRIGHT AND EARLY!"

Papyrus thought about what he said for just a second.

"I SHALL BE THERE DARK AND LATE!"

"that's more like it. guess i'd better break out the telescope," Sans nodded, slowly becoming more and more happy with the idea.

"THIS IS GOING TO BE SO COOL!"

"you're forgetting something though, pap."

"WHAT?"

"it's bedtime. go get into your pj's and i'll come up for a story in a bit, okay?"

"OF COURSE!"

Papyrus bounded up the steps with a resounding "NYEH-HEH-HEH!"

Sans trudged toward the stairs stopping as he passed the nearby window. He gazed up at the almost-full moon, and gave it a determined look.

"i'll get up there. i'll find a way. _we'll_ find a way."

It smelled like smiles and starting over.


	5. The Next Day

I wasn't satisfied ending Cheer Up The Skeleton week on the last one, so I came up with a bonus prompt for myself. The prompt was "The Next Day."

This whole project was a blast to take part in. I really enjoyed it!

* * *

It was a beautiful night outside. Birds were sleeping, crickets were chirping, and the secrets of the cosmos were laid bare above the neighborhood. The moon, mostly full, shed its light softly, watching over the planet like a guardian.

For two skeletal brothers, standing on the roof, class was in session.

"ok," Sans began "so the crazy thing about the universe is just how big it is, and how far apart everything is. that moon up there? how far away do you think it is?"

Papyrus looked up and squinted for a bit, and then held his hands out in a box shape to try to get the picture clearer. "HMM...I BET IT'S HIGHER THAN I THINK SO...TWENTY THOUSAND MILES?"

"nah, try again, bro."

"...FORTY THOUSAND?"

"nope. way higher."

Papyrus was beginning to get that frustrated look on his face. "ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND!"

"getting there. it's over two hundred thousand miles away."

"I WAS GOING TO GUESS THAT NEXT!"

"i bet you were, bro," Sans winked.

"BUT THAT'S CRAZY! HOW DID THE HUMANS EVEN GET UP THERE?!"

"well, they built a spacecraft to get up there, and they had to wait. it took them three days to get up there, and they were going really _really_ fast."

"WOWIE! THAT MUST'VE BEEN SO-"

 _THUNK._

It smelled like humans and a ladder hitting the side of the house.

"what the...who's there?"

A familiar mop of shaggy brown hair gave them their answer right away. The smiling face that came next only served to confirm the hypothesis.

"...'sup, kiddo? what're you doin' up here?"

"OH! I TOLD FRISK THAT YOU WERE HOLDING AN ASTRONOMY CLASS, AND THEY WANTED TO COME ALONG! I HOPE THAT'S OKAY."

"heh, guess you got the kid all starry-eyed, huh?"

Frisk laughed, while Papyrus tried really hard not to.

"alright, alright, get on up here, bud."

Frisk's eyes lit up as they sat down right next to Sans, the skeleton wrapping his arm around their shoulders.

"so the moon is two hundred thousand miles away, but the sun's even crazier than that. it's about ninety three _million_ miles away. it takes light from the sun a little over eight minutes just to get to earth. thankfully, it doesn't stop shining so we don't really notice a difference."

"SO...HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR STARLIGHT TO GET HERE?"

"depends on the star, but the lowest answer is 'years,' at least."

"YEARS?!"

"yep. they're so far away it takes years for us to see it. some of those stars up there? they might actually be gone now, but we won't know for a long time."

Both the taller skeleton and the human were at a loss for words.

"i know, right? it even takes years for us to see the light from our closest star-"

"A-Alpha Centauri," came a nervous voice from the nearby ladder.

It took her a little while to get over her fear of heights, but eventually Doctor Alphys clamored up onto the roof, briskly walking toward the middle to get away from the edge. Sans side-eyed Papyrus.

"...i guess frisk wasn't the only person you told."

"NOPE!"

"Oh, I didn't think it was a private thing, sorry..."

Sans chuckled. "nah, it's cool. have a seat. you were halfway correct, by the way."

"Halfway?"

"yeah. alpha centauri is actually a cluster of three stars, locked into gravitational orbit with each other. alpha centauri a, and alpha centauri b are 4.37 light years away. their neighbor, proxima centauri, is 4.24 light years away, so technically, proxima centauri is the closest star to us."

"AND...WHAT'S A LIGHT YEAR?"

"it's a measurement of how far light can travel in a year. it's about...9 trillion miles, give or take."

"Whoa..." Frisk said, gazing skyward again.

"yep. so if it took humans three days to get to the moon, it would take...hmm."

Sans pulled out his phone and tapped frantically at the surface. The others gazed on in awe, awaiting the answer.

"well...let's just say it'd take hundreds, if not thousands of years, with current technology as it stands."

Papyrus hung his head. "SO...WE'LL NEVER GET THERE, I GUESS."

"W-well...we don't know that for sure," Alphys began.

"yeah, we still don't know everything about our universe. we might find a way to fold space, which, if we could, we could get there in a matter of days or weeks."

"I'M SURE YOU TWO COULD FIGURE IT OUT!"

"us?!"

"Us?"

Sans and Alphys looked at each other for a moment, giving each other a bit of nervous laughter.

"OF COURSE! THE BRILLIANT DOCTOR ALPHYS AND MY BROTHER SANS, WHO MANAGED TO BUILD A..."

Sans flinched for a bit before Papyrus decided to hold back.

"...WELL, NOT ANYTHING REALLY, BUT I THINK HE COULD IF HE WANTED TO TRY!"

'heh, thanks, pap."

They all laid back and gazed upward again. Alphys tilted her head and had to take off her glasses to rid herself of the glare.

"S-so, Sans, why don't you have your telescope out?"

Sans sighed. "it's too bright here. kinda drowns out the starlight, so i figured i'd go over some of the math and very basic concepts before we went stargazing. i gotta figure out a good spot to set up."

"I know someplace, and it's not too far."

"really? hey pap, ready for a road trip?"

"OF COURSE! I AM ALWAYS PREPARED! ...BUT WHAT ABOUT FRISK?"

"what about frisk?"

Frisk shook their head. "No no, it's okay, you guys go."

"...oh, right. it's way past your bedtime, huh kid? you snuck out?"

Frisk nodded.

"hmm. alright, tell you what, you don't tell tori about this, and i'll sneak you back in with a shortcut later, okay?"

The human gave a beaming smile.

"THEN IT'S SETTLED! EVERYONE! TO THE PAPYRUS-MOBILE!"

"...are you really calling it that, now?"

"YES!"

"of course you are," Sans laughed.

* * *

"Alright, pull in here," Alphys directed.

The car turned into the parking lot of a rest area off of the highway, coming to a stop as Papyrus killed the engine. The four travelers exited the vehicle as Alphys kept pointing the way, away from the minimal lighting around the area.

"We can go that way a bit. A lot of people like to go stargazing up here, from what I've heard."

"cool."

Papyrus used his phone to light the ground, taking extra care to guide Frisk along in case of any hazards. Sans had his telescope slung over his shoulder, its clattering being the only unnatural sound for miles.

Soon enough, they came across a pair of benches along the trail. They gazed off into a valley, and they could easily see the rest of the town of Ebott. Frisk, in particular, was trying to find their house in their mind. Alphys was the first to sit down.

"This should be good enough. Look up."

Waterfall couldn't hold a candle to what they were seeing. Hundreds, no, _thousands_ of stars dotted the sky, and a large stripe cut across the center. Gone were the lights of the city, or even the sounds of nature. It was all as if it were nothing compared to the majesty of the universe that revealed itself before them. It was surprising that out of all of the, Papyrus was the quietest one of all.

"whoa..." Sans gasped.

"Nice, isn't it? I've heard that the university is seeking funding to perhaps build an observatory up here. I hope they do."

"...yeah."

"H-Hey, Sans?"

"...yeah."

"Sans, are you going to set up the telescope?"

He looked at Papyrus and Frisk, who seemed to be lost in their own little world.

"nah. i think class is dismissed. it's time for recess, don't you think?"

Alphys rolled her eyes a bit. "Sans, college doesn't have recess!"

"well maybe it should. i've heard it's pretty stressful."

"I...guess I can't argue that."

"Hey Sans?" Frisk asked, pointing, "what's that huge cloud in the middle?"

"that's the rest of the milky way. we're part of it, but we're only in one part of it. that huge stripe is the center of it, and every single bit of light coming from it is a from a star."

"WOWIE...IT'S BEAUTIFUL!"

"yeah. and it's still twenty-seven thousand light years away. and it's been estimated that the entire galaxy has over four hundred billion stars, maybe even-"

 _BEEP._

"...what was that?"

Sans, Papyrus, and Frisk turned toward the source of the noise. Alphys was holding her phone out, pointing the front right at Sans. Something on her end gave her a happy smile.

"takin' a picture? you didn't use the flash, so...hope you like it dark."

"I'm not taking a picture," Alphys responded.

It had always been in the back of his mind, lost among other noises, sounds, and experiences, but suddenly Sans realized he'd heard that beep before. At the recent party at Grillby's, he remembered hearing it a few times. And even before that, he'd always heard it when he was around Alphys. He always figured it was just her phone's notification sounds, that it was just another Facebook update or something.

"Sans...there was another reason I wanted to see you guys tonight."

He could already tell Alphys was beginning to sweat, even in the dark. "alright, calm down, what's going on."

"W-Well...Papyrus told me he was worried, so i've been taking measurements and...Sans..."

"measurements?!" Sans glared at Papyrus, who was still smiling.

"...Sans, you have 29 HP."

"what?!"

"YES! YOU DID IT! SANS! YOU HAVE MORE HP! I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT!"

Frisk tilted their head in confusion.

"You see," Alphys explained, "a monster's HP is a measurement of how strong their souls are. Our bodies are made of magic, and our magic is attuned to our souls. Our souls are also dependent on our emotional states, and in our weaker moments, or sadder ones, we have less HP. I made some adjustments in my phone to measure the magical waves that monster souls give off. Sans' soul has gotten stronger. I'm so happy for you!"

"i...i don't know what to say. are you sure you're right? am i...really getting better?"

"Yeah. It might take awhile to get to your old self, but you're coming around."

"I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW IT! OH SANS!"

"pap...this was your idea? how'd you even...?"

"THAT NIGHT, A FEW MONTHS AGO, WHEN WE WERE FIRST UP ON THE ROOF. YOU GOT SO EXCITED THAT I COULD...FEEL IT. IT FELT LIKE A HEARTBEAT THAT WAS GETTING STRONGER, SO I THOUGHT THAT...MAYBE YOUR SOUL WAS..."

Tears began to trickle down Papyrus' face.

"WHY AM I CRYING? SANS, I'M HAPPY BUT I'M CRYING?! WHAT'S GOING ON! I...NYOO-HOO HOO...!"

Another tear drifted down another skeleton's face before he wiped it away. "s'normal, pap. when you're really happy, your body just...doesn't know what it wants to do. so sometimes it...cries. I uh..."

He sniffled and wiped his eyes again.

"i can't believe it's...happening. i never thought i'd be here, doing this, feeling this."

The brothers embraced each other, trying their hardest to retain their composure. Sans struggled the hardest, since Papyrus had already lost his grip entirely. Heavy, happy sobs erupted from the pair before a small human child decided to join them. Soon, they became a monument to the happiest sadness that ever existed on this pale blue dot.

Alphys sniffled and wiped her eyes before clicking her phone again. A bright flash hit the trio followed by the familiar sound of a camera's shutter being emulated. She tapped a few more times again, both to save the picture, to send it, and then...

 _BEEP._

"Sans."

The three calmed down for just a bit, looking at Alphys again.

"Thirty two."

Papyrus and Frisk hugged even tighter, and Sans erupted into laughter. True, honest laughter, something they both hadn't heard in a long time. It was the kind of laughter that reminded Papyrus, again, of that fateful night on the roof. It was the kind of laughter that proved the strength of the heart.

It smelled like bones, humans, and scientists.

It smelled like starlight and smiles.

It smelled like everything falling into place.

It finally smelled like hope.


End file.
